Houston we have lift off...and a taste of home

We (as in Lena, a friend from Whitman, and I) said farewell to Portland. We left the comforting embraces of my parents as we said goobye and followed the PDX green carpet as it guided us to the check in counter and later to our gate. New record, neither bag was overweight, the only problem was that when I handed the woman at the desk my ticket to board the plane, she took one look at my carry-on and said, "could you please show me that your bag will fit in the compartment there." In my head I thought, "sure, no problem, do you happen to have a crowbar?" It didn't fit, but I lucked out because they had hoped to speed up the loading process so they were checking traveler's carry-ons for free and we were off to Texas.

the travelers

In light of the theme of this blog, the fact that our plane to Buenos Aires took off from Houston was rather convenient. I didn't put it all together until we passed a kiosk on the way to our departure gate that was selling shirts that said, "I need my space" with a big NASA logo on them. Two hours later we were nearly in space. If you were super man with night vision and had flown by our plane Wednesday evening, you would have seen a 20 year old girl with a sweatshirt over her head and her nose pressed flat against the window as she gaped out the window at the stars. Orion slowly moved by as we glided down the Milky Way. Every once in a while I could see a few lights on land, little towns in the mountains of Central America.

The plane landed around 10:20. Bleary eyed, as I fail to sleep while on planes, we called a taxi and got to the hostel, changed, went for a walk and then had one of those, "Holy [fill in the blank] what have I gotten myself into" moments as we walked down the bustling Calle Florida. Neither of us had been in the middle of such a high concentration of people in quite a while so we ducked into a bookstore and enjoyed a sobering sandwich.

Today Calle Florida was much more manageable. Floral prints are all the rage and gladiator sandals rule the majority even on the unpredictable cobblestone. It seems like Argentina likes shoes, I think we will get along very well in that department. I am not sure how easy clothes will be to find, the "one size fits all" fails to take into account athletic builds. Also, the helado de menta granalizada, mint chip ice cream was a delicious taste of home. 

Plaza Mayo-Signs Remembering the Catastrophe of the Falkan Islands 

Calle Florida

Late this evening we are venturing to el barrio de Palermo or the neighborhood of Palermo. A friend from high school lives there now and has graciously offered to show us around. Sunday we head off to Patagonia for a few weeks. Apparently the two-day bus ride that we will be taking in the middle of it is on Ruta 40, a gravel/dirt road. Looks like it might be wise to invest in something that can induce drowsiness. A friend suggested a box of wine, I was thinking more along the lines of Tylenol PM but I am flexible.

Chau.